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What is the world coming to?

Submitted by nathanieltroutman on Sat, 02/10/2007 - 20:11

What is the world coming to? Has anyone been reading Slashdot recently? The number of misinterpreted laws, especially concerning computers, and the blatant over reactions of people, and asinine behavior is staggering.
I saw this story about two teens, a guy and his girlfriend, being prosecuted for child pornography because they took pictures of themselves named and sent them to each other by email. Whether or not the act of taking nude photos and emailing them is condonable or not isn't the issue. The crazy thing is that not one, but two judges, would rule for enforcing the charges of child pornography. I understand that the laws are meant to protect children from predators, and stop the distribution of child pornography. But is this really child pornography? While they are still minors, the pictures were sent with the assumption of privacy. Intended for each other's eyes only. Lets not hide anything here, teens do have sex, its not a new thing, they've been doing it for millennia and will keep doing it! Do I condone premarital sex, no, but really that is not an issue. This is really about a right to privacy, and that the intentions of the teens were not exploit each other, or to sell the pictures, but for their own quote-in-quote entertainment. This is just one case where we need to see drastic changes in the laws governing privacy. We have a right to privacy, and what ever we do in private, especially when we are not planning to break the law, those actions should remain private.
Or how about this story about ways not to handle free speech. One of them is about Amazon hanging up on a person wishing to leave a comment about the continuing sale of animal fight magazines by Amazon. But that's not the one I want to look at, its the second story that I wish to talk about. In this one we have YouTube/Google banning a member for posting "logical" arguments against Islam. The interesting thing here is that these aren't the first videos he's posted. The gentlemen who has been banned from YouTube is an outspoken atheist, and has also posted videos with arguments against Christianity. While I may be a Christian I still think everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether I think it s the correct one or not, and regardless of a desire to change their opinion, peaceably albeit. People disagree in this world, they always will, and people will always insult others beliefs or argue strongly against them. It is sad that some resort to illogical flaming and mockery of others beliefs. However, in spite of that, if one person is allowed to peaceably share their opinion, then everyone should. If YouTube bans something for questioning Islam then it to should ban anything that is anti-Christian, anti-Judaism, anti-Catholic, anti-Wicca, anti-Buddhism, anti-any-other-religion. Its absurd, if you filter any sort of free speech that might offend someone you might as well filter it all. It is sad that people can't agree to disagree, or at least try to persuade each other peaceably. Its not free speech if its censored, and its not free speech if you can express your opinion but I can't express mine.
Lets not even get into the whole deal with the Aqua Teen Hunger Force publicity stunt that shut down Boston due to the over reaction of officials, while Atlanta and eight other cities just kept about its daily life without incident. But not Boston, which freaked out after a few days. For the curious (and lazy) here is a picture of the devices:

Some of the more memorable comments against the over-reaction include: "Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?" and "The majority of us recognize the difference between a bomb and a Lite-Brite." While agree that in this day and age serious threats must be taken seriously and that guerrilla marketing is illegal and there should be consequences for breaking the law, I still think this was a way overblown reaction. To read more see the full Wikipedia article

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